Gurnett Cathey reacts to the testimony of Ronald Ellis. Ellis is on trial on a charge of killing Cathey's daughter, Torhonda Cathey, in 2014 in the parking lot of the Target on Colonial in East Memphis.
Katie Fretland/The Commercial Appeal

Gloria Sweet-Love speaks about Torhonda Cathey, the mother of her grandson. Cathey was fatally shot Sept. 8, 2014 in a Target parking lot in East Memphis. The trial of Cathey's former boyfriend, Ronald Ellis, began Tuesday.
Katie Fretland/The Commercial Appeal

Relative of victim reacts to guilty verdict in former firefighter's trial

Gurnett Cathey reacts to the testimony of Ronald Ellis

Gloria Sweet-Love speaks about woman who was fatally shot in Target parking lot

Inside the murder trial of Ronald Ellis

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Ronald Ellis arrives in court for his murder trial in Judge James Beasley's court. He is charged with killing his former girlfriend Torhonda Cathey, 33, who was shot to death outside the Target on Colonial.(Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

After his dramatic arrest in Georgia in which authorities used spike strips in the road and a Taser to capture him, Ronald Ellis confessed to shooting his former girlfriend in a Target parking lot in East Memphis.

Ellis, a former Memphis firefighter who was previously charged with domestic violence involving his girlfriend, explained in detail what happened the day he shot 33-year-old Torhonda Cathey in a statement to Memphis police Det. Nino Frias and Sgt. Michael Brown on Sept. 17, 2014 in Woodbine, Georgia. His murder trial began this week in the court of Judge James Beasley and prosecutors rested their case Wednesday.

The day of the shooting on Sept. 8, 2014, Ellis said he woke up, got some coffee and felt on edge all morning.

"I'm like ... I think I'm going to do this," he said according to a copy of his statement obtained by The Commercial Appeal.

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Dr. Karen Chancellor, chief medical examiner for Memphis and Shelby County, testifies that a gunshot wound to the hand of Torhonda Cathey could have been a defensive wound. She spoke during the trial of Ronald Ellis in Judge James Beasley's court. Ellis is charged with killing his former girlfriend, Cathey, who was shot to death outside the Target store on Colonial Road in 2014.(Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

He said he wrote out a letter saying "It was a good day to die," got in his vehicle and picked up a rental car. He sat at a grocery at Union Avenue and Cooper until about 12:10 or 12:15 p.m. and then drove by Cathey's job. Cathey, who worked at the Shelby County Board of Education, wasn't there, so he headed to places he knew she frequented and spotted her car at the Target on Colonial.

She walked out of the store, past his car and got in her car. He got out of his car at some point and aimed the gun at the glass. He said he fired, and she put the car in drive and bumped the car in front of her instead of going in reverse. She went to get out on the passenger side, and he fired again.

"I think it hit her in the leg," he said.

Torhonda Cathey(Photo: Courtesy of the Cathey family)

The gun jammed for about 20 seconds.

"I was getting ready to walk toward her but I saw a guy coming, but I squeezed off another round in her back," he said. "And the guy was saying, 'Man what is your problem?'"

Cathey, who was described by family as beautiful and brilliant, died the next day.

Ellis left the parking lot and drove out to Colonial Road and headed toward Park Avenue. He said he thinks he turned on Willow Road and threw the gun's clip and last round out the window. He drove to the Hickory Hill area, tossed his phone and drove to the victim's apartment complex in Olive Branch.

He said he stayed there from about 1:20 until 5:50 p.m.

Then, "I just drove out 178, I didn't know where I was going," he said. "So I was just driving and driving."

Asked why he shot her, Ellis said, "I was hurt and angry and lost, pretty much just lost."

"I didn't feel like I had anything else," he said.

He complained in the confession about stress at his job at the Fire Department, "being harassed by my chief about a lot of little small stuff."

"I had took off work because of my finances and everything else that was going on," he said. "I couldn't even ... I couldn't sleep."

Records show Olive Branch police previously arrested Ellis in 2013 and charged him with malicious mischief, domestic violence and stalking. Cathey reported he followed her and tried to run her off the road. The fire department suspended him without pay for 10 days. In 2007, a female firefighter-paramedic reported he shoved her in the back during an argument over duties. According to records, the fire department investigated “other off-duty incidents related to domestic violence involving women that required police involvement.”

He was terminated Sept. 19, 2014, after the fatal shooting.

In his statement to authorities, Ellis said he and Cathey started a relationship in 2009. He references a dispute over her wanting to get her master's degree and a rift between them around 2013.

He called her and she didn't pick up.

"I called probably about 50 times that day until finally she said, 'You know I ain't gonna be able to talk to you no more because I'm tryin' to move on and all,'" he said.

After he shot her, he said when authorities caught him in Georgia, he had hoped to get shot himself. "I exited the vehicle with the gun out in plain view," he said.

Ellis said he'll never be able to forget what happened to Cathey.

"Nothing in this world gonna be able ... that memory forever be etched in my mind. I could never .. I wish .. I wish.. I wish I wouldn't have done it," he said.